“I use the report to analyze my individual metrics: my request-to-application ratio, applications-to-‘join the flock’ day (discovery day) ratio, and lead conversion from unique visitors to our website to those who fill out a request for more information,” says Paul Pickett, vice president of franchise development at Wild Birds Unlimited. “I also look at how we’re spending money as a percentage of our advertising budget compared to others.”

Pickett also uses the report’s extensive benchmarking data to determine if there are any opportunities he might be missing out on to improve his franchise development results. For example, he had moved away from using print for several years, but when he studied the data on how other brands were using print ads, he decided to give it another try. “If you’re willing to have your mind opened, this report is a way to do it,” he says.

“I look at areas we can improve, where we’re doing well, and how we can do better."

“This is the only place we can get a benchmark—the numbers to give us an idea of how we’re doing. It shows us where we are, where the industry is, and where it’s going,” says Pete Lindsey, vice president of franchising at Sport Clips.

The industry averages in the AFDR also give his team a number they can use in determining their own goals. In terms of cost per sale and cost per lead, he says, “Everybody’s trying to look at the benchmarking and beat it.”

He also uses the report to continually improve his sales process, based on the annual mystery shopping for telephone and website response, using the judging criteria as a guide to ensure that best practices are followed throughout his company’s sales process.

“The report is so helpful to us in making budget comparisons. We were in a vacuum building out a budget. We expected results, but didn’t get them,” says Josh Wall, vice president of franchising and strategic development at Christian Brothers Automotive “The first time I got hold of the AFDR, I knew we were grossly behind in our lead generation budget. I saw we weren’t getting the lead generation we wanted because we were under budget. This was as recent as 3 or 4 years ago.” He says the benchmarking data is especially good for smaller franchisees who don’t have the internal resources larger brands do,

The AFDR benchmarks also provided him with comparative data to show his CFO and CEO what other companies were spending in their recruitment budgets. “It allowed us to bolster our budget. We’re closer to the median now,” he says. “The report helps me evaluate how we’re doing on budget and metrics compared with our peers.”

And conversion is up—significantly. “Our conversion rate now is a little bit higher than 6.5 percent. I’m pleased because our number is close to twice the benchmark in the AFDR,” he says. “By having a recruitment website and continuing to spend SEO dollars, and a little bit of an SEM campaign, we expect it to continue to grow,” he says.